ChompServ was down for a bit this evening. After having some memory issues with the server I decided to switch my HTTP software from Apache2 to Nginx. Everything is loads faster now and the server has oddles of memory! It was a lot of work but I think it was for the better.

DreamSphere will have it’s very first release on December 15. It’s the DreamSphere Prototype #1 and will be a demonstration of what the game currently has to offer. Everyone who ‘likes’ Chompy Creations on Facebook will have an opportunity to try a brief sample of the game in the first Prototype. You can also contact me (you can find the info on the About page) if you’d like to participate.

Note to potential players… this is “Prototype” release meaning it’s not polished or anywhere near what should be a final release. It’s very much a ‘pre alpha’ release. We’re release it at this stage to hopefully get some feedback on how we might proceed with development.

DreamSphere recently received a bit of an overhaul. We decided to basically make player characters and enemy characters run off the same code. That way we can always ensure that enemies have all the same capabilities as players. Enemies can now attack and use skills, there can also be ‘friendly’ enemies that assist the player character(s).

So here is how the game is currently looking…

He see's you!

UPDATE: The above image was changed… here is the original… ds_11272011.jpg.

Not really all that different… it’s what’s inside that counts!

We added a damage log that shows the last 8 damage events (seen on the right). It’ll need to be tweaked but we both agreed that removing the damage info from the chat log would be a good idea. We’re currently in the process of redesigning the HP/MP status area of the Hud. We got a nice design coming out for that.

UPDATE: Added the image with the new Hud! Thoughts?

As I believe I’ve stated in the past the game engine being used to develop DreamSphere is called Panda3D. It’s an incredible engine that’s pretty easy to learn… perhaps one of my favorite things about it is that it uses Python as its primary scripting language (for coding the games). However one set back I’ve had with Panda3D is that its particle engine is still a bit buggy. So that left me with one of two options… either use pre-rendered particle effects or code my own particle system. Fortunately a fellow by the name of Treeform already had made his own system for handling particle like stuff. He wrote the MeshDrawer class for drawing lots of billboards (flat objects that rotate to face the camera ). I took the MeshDrawer and made something that sort of resembled Panda3D’s already built in particle system… it’s not nearly there yet but for the purposes of DreamSphere it’s pretty solid! Check out some of my particles…

On the second one I rotated it around a bit to show that it’s a fully 3D system. So that’s the particle system, I’m already using it in DreamSphere and it’s been working pretty well!

Getting close to the DreamSphere Prototype deadline! We’re going to fall a little behind of our deadline but it’s coming along pretty well…

We’re got weapon combat and enemy AI in place…mostly… we still need to implement skills, inventory, and a lot of other stuff! We’re really happy with how the game is starting shape out. We’re making a game that we actually want to play and hope that others will want to play it too!